Dance Crew asks: What’s in a name?

Houston’s SoReal Cru, seen here in last week’s performance on America’s Best Dance Crew, has yet to fall into any bottom groups. Will they survive past Independence Day?

OK, no more Mr. Nice Blogger.

If you want to know which crew was eliminated this week on America’s Best Dance Crew, you’ll have to continue to the jump. For the first time this season, I had real qualms about the judges’ decision. But hey, I’m not behind the table.

If it wasn’t clear last week, the producers are picking certain themes and songs for each crew, and it might’ve handicapped some of them. The producers surely think they’re catering to each group’s style, but you can’t call all of these “challenges” challenges when you do that.

How did our own SoReal Cru do with this week’s Rock the Title challenge? What random nonsense came out of Lil Mama’s mouth? And what was Mario Lopez wearing? Find out … after the break.

The recap: Everyone did well last week, according to the judges, but Sass x7 (who?) was sent back to cheer camp. Since the judges didn’t really pick on anyone, I predicted Phresh Select and Boogie Bots to fill this week’s bottom two.

Mario Lopez comes out, and he is wearing that shirt. Or should I say his chest is? I tell you, he’s something else. Looks like something out of his wardrobe from A Chorus Line.

Turns out, since there’s an even number of teams again, we’re going to see the top four and the bottom four. First pair to be divided: ASIID and Supreme Soul. This was an easy, unsurprising upset — ASIID’s in the top thanks to it’s electric Like A Boy performance last week, while Supreme Soul is in danger.

ASIID gets the song Roll by Flo Rida featuring Sean Kingston to “visually inspire” its choreography. They were definitely blessed to have members capable of tumbling, but I agreed with Lil Mama when she said they were sloppy. Thankfully, she had a slow-mo to help illustrate her point, where I’d already noticed MeMe not exactly in position near the end.

Shane Sparks was happy they did three different rolls, but I was just OK with it. Wasn’t ASIID’s most thrilling performance.

Next pair: SoReal and Phresh Select. I obviously didn’t think this was a contest, but I was worried just a bit, and you could see SoReal was, too. Jackie Lautchang and brothers Brian and Mark Fucanan all said thank-you prayers after Lopez announced they’d made it into the top four.

For their song, SoReal got R. Kelly’s Snake, which I once again wasn’t really feeling. I know they got that title because they’ve done a lot of slithering-type moves, and I know they could’ve handled more. At practice the crew appeared to have trouble making up stand-alone snake moves, but you knew they’d explode in the ring.

And that they did. Didn’t care for the opening snake charmer bit, but after the first pop, I was down. They put their jacket hoods up, slithered, moved their heads inside like they were playing Plinko (which Lil Mama loved) and then seductively lip-synced a lyric. There were more snake moves, what Sparks called “a snake moonwalk,” lots of tuts (think of cheerleader points, but not cheer-y) and a snake swallowing bit that made me laugh out loud.

SoReal appeared at its crunkest ever afterward, and the judges were all positive. They said last week SoReal was the cleanest in the competition, and the crew kept that attitude. Lil Mama wanted them to know she’s not a hater, and said if they keep it up they’re going all the way to the top.

All right, let’s not get too excited. They’ve still got to get votes, and I’d like to think SoReal got more because of the holiday. Layla Kayleigh interviewed an out of breath Mark after their performance, and all he could really do was thank SoReal’s fans and express his love for his teammates.

Third pair: Fanny Pak and Super CR3W. Fanny Pak’s Glenda knew right from the get go they didn’t fare as well this week, putting her hand to her head as soon as she heard the pair, but after seeing Supreme Soul fall I thought they might’ve gone ahead of Super CR3W … but they didn’t.

Super CR3W has Jim Jones’ We Fly High (Ballin’)Producers: “These guys can leap buildings in a single bound, so let’s give ‘em something to show that off!” Gag me.

With that said, I still like these Las Vegas breakers, and try as I might, I couldn’t not like their acrobatic choreography. Lil Mama felt bad for the other crews because Super CR3W wrecked it without really doing any dance moves (true), but the slow-mo was put to really good use when an elated Sparks discussed Ben’s “sky flares.”

Beforehand, I just thought it was nice, but seeing it played back, it was almost superhuman. They also “made it rain” and capped off their set by simulating an airplane. Bottom line: I loved it, but everyone else’s googly eyes — even Lopez was ecstatic — got to me. They said the crew threw one of the guys up 100 feet (um, no) and Lil Mama went off about no human going higher than Superman (um, Superman’s not real). So, yeah. Let’s move on.

Last pair divided: Boogie Bots and Xtreme Dance Force. I’ve gone 1-for-2 in my predictions so far, plus I liked Xtreme a whole lot more than the Bots last week. And … Xtreme goes to the bottom. Darn.

Boogie Bots is given Game Over by Houston’s own Lil Flip. Producers: “They’re robotic, like Transformers… give ‘em a video game song!” Boo.

Actually, the song worked for them. But everything the judges said was way over-exaggerated. Especially Lopez’s comments (“For a second there, thought I was taken back to the Ms. Pac-Man days! Right?” No. Maybe because that was part of the song.) The best parts were what J.C. Chasez pointed out, the Street Fighter upper cut, and the crew’s back-bending crop walk. All the other crap was show, including the dark light segment and ending.

Boogie Bots wasn’t taking any chances after ending up in last week’s bottom two, and if they’d gone back in this week with that, they would no doubt have survived. I just didn’t like it. I liked it less than Super CR3W’s set.

So who’s saved next? Lopez announces that Xtreme and Phresh Select are the bottom two facing off, and Fanny Pak and Supreme Soul are definitely moving on to next week.

Fanny Pak gets Britney Spears’ Toy Soldier. OK, definitely another cop-out by the producers, but you’ve got to love it for it’s level of difficulty. Plus, that title was the worst so far in terms of inspiring choreography. Nevertheless, Fanny Pak put it down.

They started out with their feet in actual mats — like toy soldiers! OMG! Lol. Wasn’t as edgy as Lil Mama tried to make it seem, but it was cool. It was definitely better than when they tried using them to make a soldier like they were Boogie Bots. Fanny Pak’s still the underdog, but they’re my second favorite crew.

Supreme Soul, finally, completely impressed me last week, but I knew they had their hands full with Elevator by Flo Rida featuring Timbaland. This was a real challenge, in my eyes. Supreme Soul had a lot going on here, and a lot of props along with it. Surprisingly, I agree with Lil Mama once again. I was not excited right after, but I was satisfied.

They might not escape the bottom next week, but their being there this time surely scared their fans. Plus it is worth mentioning how they always seem to spotlight a different crew member each week, this time Kevin — er, Antoine. Someone give Lil Mama a roll sheet!

First in the elimination face off: Phresh Select, with T.I.’s Big Things Poppin’. And boy, whenever the camera crew taped Phresh’s practice, these boys were not feeling each other. Likewise, I so didn’t feel their performance (ha, you like what I did there?)

There was popping, but … I don’t know, it was sloppy popping. I watched the whole thing but couldn’t remember a thing about it other than when one member kept bouncing off of the floor.

Then Xtreme Dance Force comes out with Tech N9ne’s Earthquake (don’t worry guys, I don’t know it either. Blame the producers.), and I didn’t feel them either. They had some nice moves to go with the theme, but it wasn’t enough.

I did have a bone to pick with Lopez afterwards. One of the Xtreme members got so hype (I know, I know, just go with it) that he took off his shirt. Lopez said, “Let’s get this man a shirt.” Um, Mario … yeah, youcan’ttalk. (Warning: links possibly NSFW. But hey, you’re already reading up on ABDC, so you’re hardly working.)

Comparing the bottom two, both were sloppy, and neither was real memorable, even though Xtreme ended their performance by pulling their pants down. Xtreme illustrated its concept better, and I liked their play off of Mario’s Let Me Love You last week, so I wanted Phresh Select to head home to Philly (which, according to Lil Mama, is “a state that’s really known for violence,” and “one of the most popular states.” Man, sucks that Philadelphia beat out Puerto Rico for that 51st state recognition.) but … the judges send Xtreme Dance Force back to suburban Chicago.

Next week brings with it the “Speed Up” challenge, where the crews will dance to lightning-fast beats. Anyone got any predictions for likely song “choices?”

My top three: Super CR3W, Fanny Pak and SoReal Cru.

My bottom two: Phresh Select and ASIID.

Let me explain that. I shouldn’t place another bottom-two survivor here again, but I really didn’t like them. And I only think ASIID will wind up here because they A.) “won” over Supreme Soul to make it to the top four, and B.) went first. Whenever you go first, you’re more likely to not get as many votes, because viewers don’t always remember as vividly as other performers. And if anyone falls prey to that, let’s hope it’s them and not SoReal Cru.

Anyways, y’all turn MTV off for a while, enjoy the Fourth and hope ABDC is down to only and hour next week. Holla, Chron-dogs.

UDuke wrote: “hm, she said she wasn’t excited after because she was still THINKING about the performance. And then preceded to tout the performance.

Pay attention”

And the other judges emphasized that they too didn’t really get grabbed by the performance so why don’t you pay attention. Why can’t you just appreciate the blog for what it is and not act like an idiot.

Good work with the blog, your last one got me hooked on the show. Now I DVR it and love watching it. I just got a disappointing feeling however, becuase I searched youtube for last years winner and none of the crews this year have matched last years winner’s excitement or dances.

i live n houston texas looking for a dance crew 2 join i live on the north side of town my name is ishmael logan aka baby boy if you need 2 reach me call me at 832 620 4380 please call because im a good dancer n i take pride for my crew n me i work n have a 3 moth year old son i’m struggling 2 see what the world will bring to me please n my number one thing always believe n god thats whats achieve alote of stuff hit me back k